ITS ALL ABOUT STAR EXPORT HOUSES (CHECKLIST AND REGISTRATION PROCEDURE)

The main objective of foreign trade policies is to make the import-export process simple and attractive for importers, exporters, and traders.

There are various export promotion schemes, and Status Holder Certificate is one of them.

The Objective of the Star Export House Certificate or Status Holder Certificate is to boost export performance. As per the updates to the Foreign Trade Policy of 2015-2020, Exporters are assigned status holder positions by their export performance.

Eligibility Criteria

There are the following eligibility criteria to recognize an exporter as a “status holder exporter”:

• The applicant for the grant of Star Export House must have the Import Export Code (IEC).
• The certificate is given depending upon the certain level of export performance achieved by the exporters.

The applicant can get status holder recognition in any of the five categories from One Star Export House to Five Star Export House. Your export performance FOB/FOR value for them should be 3 million, 25 million, 100 million, 500 million, and $2000 million, respectively.

Export Performance
FOB/FOR (as converted )
Value (in the US $ million)

One Star Export House

Two Star Export House

Three Star Export House

Four Star Export House

Five Star Export House

The above Export performance is to be achieved in the current plus previous three Financial Years.

For Example, if You were applying for Star Export House Certification in July 2021, then your total Export Turnover for the Current FY (i.e., April to July 2021) plus previous three FY (i.e., 2017-18, 2018-19 & 2019-20) should be $ 3 million to be eligible for One Star Export House Certification.

Important Notes:

1. Turnover of only those shipments can be counted for which e-BRC has been generated.
2. Export performance in at least two out of the four Financial Years is compulsory to get Star Export House Certificate.
3. The DGFT does not recognize exports made on a re-export basis.
4. For the export performance, the DGFT will consider the Free on Board (FOB) value of export earning in free foreign exchange. In the case of deemed exports that is, transactions involving goods that remain in the country and which are paid for either in Indian or foreign freely convertible currency the DGFT will take into account the FOB/FOR value of the exports after it is converted from Indian rupees to US dollars. For this conversion, the exchange rate will be as declared by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) on 1st April of the Financial Year.

Concept of Double weightage to get One Star Export House Certificate:-

The criteria for receiving double weightage apply to only one star export house. This does not apply to other status holder categories.

An exporter who meets any one of the following criteria can get double weightage benefit:-

• Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) as defined in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006
• Manufacturing units that operate as per the ISO/BIS standards,
• Business units situated in Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, and other north eastern states
• Business units situated in the Agri Export Zones.

Only one time double weightage is allowed for a shipment in given categories.

Benefits of Star Export Houses:-

• Authorisation/License, import-export customs clearance is issued to status holders on the basis of self-declaration.
• Norms fixation for import licenses may be done within 2 months on priority basis.
• Status holders are exempted from submitting BG (Bank Guarantee) under Advance/DFIA/EPCG Schemes under FTP.
• Compulsory negotiation exempted for export documents through banks;
• Two-star export house certificate and above are allowed to build Warehouses as per guidelines of Revenue Department.
• Three Star and above Export House shall get the benefit of Accredited Clients Programme (ACP) under CBEC guidelines
• Three Star/Four Star/Five Star status holders (Manufacturer Exporters) will be enabled to self-certify their manufactured good as originating from India (Certificate of origin) to qualify for preferential treatment under following
  • Preferential trading agreements (PTA),
  • Free Trade Agreements (FTAs),
  • Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreements (CECA) – –
    Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPA).

  Validity of Star Export House Certificate:-

  • Star Export House Certificate shall be valid for 5 Years from the date of issue of certificate.
  • Certificate renewal shall be filed before the expiry of existing validity period.

  Checklist Required for Star Export House Certificate:-

  There are the following documents required for Star Export House Certificate.

  • Application Form in ANF 3C
  • Submitting Hard Copy of ANF3C
  • CA Certificate as per Annexure to ANF 3C,
  • Statement of Export, Certified by Chartered Accountant (CA),
  • Self-certified copy of IEC,
  • Self-certified copy of valid RCMC,
  • Self-certified copy of PAN.

  Additional Documents Required for Claiming Double Weightage.

  For claiming the benefit of Double Weightage to get one star export

  house status, need any one of these additional documents:-

  • MSME/SSI Certificate,
  • ISO Certificate,
  • Valid address proof that states that your business is situated in Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir or at any other North-eastern States,
  • Valid proof that your Business Units are situated in the Agri Export Zones,

  Star Export House Certificate Application Procedure:-

  • An applicant who wishes to apply for Export House Certificate need to make the application online on the DGFT website,
  • Online Application shall be filled on the Website of DGFT (www.dgft.gov.in), need to select Online E-com Application under Services Tab
  • Application shall be filled by the Application form ANF 3C with the help of Digital Signature Certificate.
  • All the required details shall be filled in ANF 3C, CA Certificate as per annexure, an export statement certified by a chartered accountant, Self Certified copy of IEC, Valid RCMC, and pan card needs to be scanned and uploaded online.
  • There is no Government fee required to submit for the Export House Certificate.
  • After submission of application in concern RA of DGFT file no. Shall be generated.
  • The Hard copy of all the documents is required to be submitted in DGFT,
  • DGFT will review the application and issue Certificate, all the export data required to stay for two years after the issuance of certificate. Concerned RA of DGFT may ask for the documents for inspection & verification.

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  CS Tanuj Saxena

  is a Qualified Company Secretary from Lucknow having a rich and Core expertise in Secretarial compliances of Companies, Nclt matters and Corporate Litigation matters.

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